Überlingen

Überlingen stands on the northern shore of Lake Constance. First recorded as the estate of Iburinga in the eighth century, it gained market rights around 1180 and town rights in 1211. By the end of the fourteenth century it was an imperial city. Its Hospital of the Holy Spirit accumulated extensive estates in the neighbouring Linzgau and Hegau, extending the city's interests well beyond its walls.

During the German Peasants' War, a peasant force failed to capture the well-defended city. In 1525 Überlingen executed several peasant leaders who refused to fight their fellow rebels. The Thirty Years' War brought successive sieges: Swedish attacks failed in 1632 and 1634, the latter while imperial ships supplied the defenders across the lake. The city was taken by a ruse in 1643 and handed to French troops, who surrendered it to an imperial and Bavarian army the following year. Überlingen lost its imperial independence and became part of Baden in 1803.